Sunday, October 15, 2017

Norm Benning picked up the 11th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #6 H & H Transport Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble without completing any of the 95 laps.

The finish, which came in Benning’s 180th series start, was his second of the season, his first since Kentucky, nine races ago. The finish put Benning into a three-way tie for the third-most last-place runs in series history, tying 1999 LASTCAR Truck Champion Phil Bonifeld and two-time title winner Mike Garvey. There have now been five consecutive Truck Series races where the last-place finisher failed to complete a single lap, a new NASCAR record.

After missing the first three races of 2017, Benning has made every race since, and has also entered a second truck, the #57, in several races to fill out short fields. In that time, Benning’s best finish of the year came at Eldora, where he rebounded from a DNQ in 2016 to finish a strong 13th. For Talladega, Benning would not enter his team truck, the #57, and only field his primary #6. For the first time since Chicagoland, the #6 would also carry associate sponsorship as Woodstock, Georgia’s H & H Trucking would have its logos on the rear quarter-panels.

Benning ran slowest of the 29 drivers who completed at least one lap in Friday’s opening practice. His best lap of 167.968mph was more than seven full seconds off the pace of session leader Cody Coughlin. He found some speed in Happy Hour, ranking 21st of 26 with a lap of 175.298mph. But in qualifying, he was the only driver who failed to turn a lap, and would start 31st on the grid. He was still guaranteed a starting spot in the field, a grid which was reduced from a full 32 after Mike Affarano withdrew his #03 Calumet City Auto Parts / Stop Bullying Chevrolet on Friday.

On Saturday, Benning, along with Josh Reaume in Beaver Motorsports’ #50 Ever-Fi Chevrolet, was sent to the rear for the start for unapproved adjustments. Both were joined by Kaz Grala, who one lap before the green fell back from 12th on the grid due to an engine change. By that point, Benning was not on the track, citing engine trouble. Another truck, Joe Nemechek in his #87 D.A.B. Constructors Chevrolet, surrendered 21st on the grid to line up next to Reaume in the back, one row behind Grala.

When the field took the green, Nemechek lost touch with the pack as the field accelerated, then pulled in after two laps to take home 31st. Presiding over his son John Hunter Nemechek’s team, the NEMCO Motorsports crew recovered from a mid-race accident to come home 6th – just enough to make the next round of the Playoffs. Grala was next to fall out, eliminated in the day’s first multi-truck accident on Lap 19, and lost his own spot in the Playoffs as a result.

Saturday’s race went to Parker Kligerman, his second Truck Series victory and his first since this same Talladega round in 2012. This time around, Kligerman drove for longtime car owner Charlie Henderson, whose team was featured on this site earlier this year at Eldora. Though active in NASCAR’s top three series since 1982, this was only the team’s 41st Truck Series start, and marked Henderson’s first NASCAR victory since June 3, 1989.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked Benning’s first Truck Series last-place finish at Talladega and his first on a plate track since the 2011 opener at Daytona. It was also the first Talladega last-place finish for the #6 in Truck Series history.
*Benning joins Mike Harmon, whose engine let go in 2014, as the only two drivers to fail to complete a lap of a Truck Series race at Talladega. Harmon himself finished 20th on Saturday in TJL Racing’s #1 Chevrolet.

No comments:

In Partnership With TheRacingExperts.com

Pick up your copy of "J.D.: The Life and Death of a Forgotten NASCAR Legend"

Click this picture for details on how to order the first stand-alone biography of the late J.D. McDuffie.

Upcoming "J.D." Book Signings

To Be Announced

by Brock Beard

40 drivers start a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. 40 fill the grid in the XFINITY Series. 32 take the green in Trucks. Yet, even when the field is short, only a handful of these stories are ever told.

The mission of LASTCAR.info is to fill in these missing pieces one week at a time, especially regarding the least-covered racers in motorsports - the last-place finishers.

Since 2009, LASTCAR.info has covered the untold "race" for the most last-place finishes in NASCAR history - and, in doing so, continues to chronicle the trials and triumphs of those who race for something more meaningful than victory: survival.

New NASCAR articles and statistical updates are added following each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup, XFINITY, and Camping World Truck Series race weekend, plus driver features, historical retrospectives, editorials, and more.

LASTCAR Merchandise on RedBubble

Let everyone know which end of the field you watch!

LASTCAR: Cup Series Last-Place Finishers By Track - FREE!

A track-by-track breakdown of Cup Series last-place finishers at every track on the circuit, plus seven tracks from the 1972 schedule no longer in use today! Click the picture for a free copy with free updates each season!

LASTCAR: The Cup Series Book - On Sale For $3.99!

Click the image above to pick up your copy of the first official LASTCAR book, featuring a year-by-year history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from the perspective of the series' last-place finishers! The book is available for download at Amazon.com for just $3.99! Free updates with every purchase!

LASTCAR: XFINITY and Truck Series Expansion Pack - On Sale For $3.99!

My second LASTCAR book, providing a year-by-year analysis of the LASTCAR Champions of both the XFINITY and Truck Series, is now on sale for download at Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers! Click the picture for a free sample and more details! Free updates with every purchase!

Formulast One - On Sale For $2.99!

My first Formula One book, featuring a complete race-by-race list of every Grand Prix last-place finisher! Free updates with every purchase!

LASTCAR's Official Definition of a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF)

For LASTCAR purposes, including rankings and statistics, a “last-place finisher” (LPF) shall be defined as any single NASCAR driver who, after earning a starting spot in the field for a NASCAR-sanctioned points-paying race against other NASCAR Sprint Cup, XFINITY, or Camping World Truck Series drivers, was at race’s conclusion classified as the last-ranked qualified driver in the field for said race. This classification must be recognized on official NASCAR results, or failing this, by a preponderance of unofficial sources. Only one driver can be classified as the LPF for any single NASCAR-sanctioned race.

So long as the above is met, the LPF can be any one driver classified as such for any reason, including but not limited to (1) a “did not start,” that is, an entrant who qualifies for a starting spot in the race, but for any reason is subsequently unable to start the event, including a post-qualifying driver switch if it is still recognized as the LPF in the results (2) an entrant who encounters an event once the race has started which prevents the driver from finishing ahead of any other qualified entrants, including both DNFs and a driver who finishes under power but laps down, (3) a decision to “start and park” the driver’s entry, (4) a disqualification handed down by NASCAR and/or track officials that subsequently classifies the driver in the final position behind the unofficial LPF.

LASTCAR shall not consider the LPF as anything else, including but not limited to (1) the lowest-ranked driver who finishes the race under power, (2) the fastest driver who does not qualify for the event in question, (3) a driver who was originally the LPF, but sometime after the race was usurped for the spot by a disqualified entrant NASCAR and/or track officials classified as the official LPF, (4) a driver who may be categorized as finishing last for exhibition events (these entrants shall be ranked only in the rankings for that event, and not commingled with LPFs).

In the rare event where official results or a preponderance of unofficial results are later updated with more accurate information about who was the LPF for that event, LASTCAR rankings and statistics shall be updated to reflect that change.

J.D. McDuffie (1938-1991)

Disclaimer

This is an unofficial NASCAR website. All articles, original art, and other entries are (c) Brock Beard. All car photos were captured from SPEED Channel, Jayski, FOX, ESPN, and TheHotLap.com, or their credited source.